Living in the great state of New Hampshire, home of the first in the nation presidential primary, those of us who are registered voters either with the party opposing the current incumbent or as undecided are bombarded, almost daily, with representatives of current candidates asking us about our “top priorities”.
Since my husband relies on the Medicaid system to get him out of bed in the morning so he can remain employed and enjoy the basics of everyday life, I usually emphasize the importance of maintaining funding for Medicaid. This is the simple answer to that question. The one that they’ll get.
What I don’t say is “Fixing our broken mental health system”- even though it is of profound importance to me. I don’t say this because I know they won’t understand. They will think I mean
- Increasing the number of beds available in psychiatric wards
- Increasing funding to community mental health centers so they can hire more staff to “treat” more people
- Funding publicity programs aimed at reducing stigma surrounding mental illness labels so more people will seek “treatment”
- Reducing the cost of and access to psychoactive medications
Of course, this isn’t what I mean at all. I’ve had plenty of access to all these things and they have only served to make me physically ill and less emotionally healthy. These are all things I’d rather see less of not more and My Story makes clear why that is.
I realized, however, thanks to that multitude of campaign staffers, simply outlining the deficits of the current system is not nearly enough. I need to be able to articulate what I do want to see happen. To that end, I submit this list. Although far from exhaustive, I hope it is a good starting point. These are my top priorities when it comes to mental health.
- Prescribers who dedicate themselves to true patient informed consent. This includes informing patients about:
- The lack of evidence for a biological basis for mental health problems
- The plethora of side effects caused by psychiatric medications
- The difficulty patients may face when trying to come off these medications
- Access to more alternative therapies. This includes exercise programs, nutritional training, talk therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, acupuncture and so on.
- A certificate program available to prescribers training them on best practices to assist patients desiring to stop taking medication.
- Outlawing direct to consumer advertising of perscription medication by pharmaceutical companies. This advertising is highly misleading and advocates the use of potentially harmful substances.
- More alternatives to hospitalization for people in mental distress especially for those wishing to avoid psychoactive medications. Examples of this are peer respites and Sotoria House.
The sad fact is that the path to true emotional wellness does not go through our current mental health system. In fact, if that what you are seeking, you’re better off avoiding it altogether.
Change is possible, however. It starts with just telling the truth. The truth is that we don’t know what causes mental and emotional distress, and our understanding of how the brain works is still so limited there is no way we can accurately predict the lasting damage psychoactive medications might do. That’s what I want to tell these campaign staffers and have them understand. Maybe someday I’ll be able to.